Years later, minority students go to competitive colleges as often as whites.

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In the US, a college education makes a huge difference for most people. It opens up lots of career opportunities, many of them at higher than average pay. The better economic opportunities it provides are associated with things like better health and a longer life expectancy.

Unfortunately, the US population doesn't have equal access to college. Black people attend the most selective colleges in the US at one-fifth the rate of whites, and Latinos at a third the rate of whites. There are a lot of systemic reasons for this gap—persistent poverty, poor access to good preparatory schools, discrimination, and more. But it can be corrected; a poor family moving to a wealthy neighborhood is enough to improve their children's college attendance rate, for example.

But a team of psychologists has now found there may be an easier way of boosting kids' chances of attending a good school than changing addresses. It's a simple exercise that can be done a few times over the year during middle school. Despite their simplicity, these exercises stay with minority students for years and help them get to college at the same rate as whites.

Self affirmative

The work comes from researchers scattered across North America, from Stanford to Columbia University. They've been following two cohorts of students since just before middle school. One is a group of 81 Latino students in the US West, along with a similar-sized control group of non-minorities. The second group includes 158 black people located in the Northeast, also along with a second set of controls from the same schools.

Back when the experiment started, the groups of students were assigned to write a set of essays, with the topic randomly assigned. Some of them were asked to write an essay about a neutral topic, like their afternoon routine. The rest of the students were asked to write about their core values and why they were important to them. This sort of exercise is designed to provide what psychologists call "self-affirmation."

Further Reading

While self-affirmation may sound like patting yourself on the back, it's really about reinforcing a sense of adequacy in people who might be plagued by self-doubt. There are a number of ways to have a self-affirmative experience—it can be as simple as a positive interaction with a teacher, or it could involve highlighting the personal relevance of their studies. However it's done, it has been found to help add a bit of resilience that allows students to perform up to their potential. The effect has been seen everywhere from middle school to college physics classes.

In this case, the students had been tracked through middle school. For both the study populations, the self-affirmation exercise improved academic performance and lowered the probability that they would end up on the remedial track. Even though the essays were written in the first year of middle school, the effects lasted throughout the remaining two years before they moved on to high school.

Since that time, however, some of the students have gone on through high school and entered college. So the new study follows up to find out how they have fared.

Long-lasting effects

The answer is: remarkably well. The cohort of Latino students had reached high school by the time of the follow up, and so the researchers looked at the sorts of classes they were taking. For the white students, the self-affirmation essays made no difference when it came to their enrollment in academically challenging classes. But for Latinos, the difference was substantial. Their risk of ending up on the remedial track was cut nearly in half, and they were more than twice as likely to end up in academically challenging classes. Enrollment in a college preparatory track went up by more than five-fold.

This didn't bring the Latino group up to the levels of their white peers, but it still marks a major improvement.

The black cohort had made it all the way through high school at the time of this most recent follow-up. And, for more than 90 percent of them who received the self-affirmation assignments, this meant college. That's higher than the rate seen in their white peers (though the difference wasn't statistically significant) and a big boost compared to the black students who hadn't done the self-affirmation exercises.

There were also gains in these students picking a four-year college as opposed to a two-year program, and the selectivity of the college they attended went up. The researchers also looked at the most selective four-year colleges and found that affirmation boosted the prospects of attending by a factor of five.

A critical window

The most striking thing about the results is that a middle-school intervention could have such long-lasting effects without any mechanisms to reinforce its impact. The obvious explanation is that the effects of the intervention became self-reinforcing. The intervention placed students in a frame of mind where they felt that they belonged at school and that college was an expected outcome. Once set with those expectations, the students would then choose classes that put them in contact with teachers and fellow students that shared those expectations.

That environment, apparently, was enough to help them overcome residual doubts, family hardships, and societal racism.

It also points to the criticality of middle school for setting these expectations. Although remedial programs are available at earlier ages, middle school tends to be where students first get choices in the types of classes they take and get to choose their peers from a broader community. Timing the intervention for this critical window appears to be essential for its success.

While it's clear that any population of students will have a range of abilities, the study also shows that a large proportion of academic success depends on our own expectations and how issues like persistent poverty and racism can skew those expectations. Not only do low expectations harm the individuals themselves, but they deprive society at large of the benefits of their achievements.

I'm definitely going to have to read the actual study, because this sounds like a great exercise to apply to your own kids.

At worst, it doesn't do anything and just takes maybe an hour or so a week from your kid's time (while at the same time helping them work on their writing skills). At best, it can motivate them for better academic performance in the future.

So wait, if you apply yourself and work hard and set expectations for yourself you'll go far in life? WHO KNEW???

No. People who are self-affirmed apply themselves better and work harder. Not all kids get that, growing up, especially not minority kids (often new immigrants or first generation) or low-income kids. They don't get the kind of affirmation they need to succeed later on.

I'm definitely going to have to read the actual study, because this sounds like a great exercise to apply to your own kids.

At worst, it doesn't do anything and just takes maybe an hour or so a week from your kid's time (while at the same time helping them work on their writing skills). At best, it can motivate them for better academic performance in the future.

I'll take that bargain.

If you are a parent it's pretty easy. My wife and I always talked to our daughters as if college were a foregone conclusion. We talked about college as if it was a given. School doesn't end at high school, it ends when you graduate college. It was always assumed in any school conversation. The idea that college was an optional thing never even came up.

Worked too, both have graduated from college (one with a masters degree). Start now, you can't do it too early.

I'm definitely going to have to read the actual study, because this sounds like a great exercise to apply to your own kids.

At worst, it doesn't do anything and just takes maybe an hour or so a week from your kid's time (while at the same time helping them work on their writing skills). At best, it can motivate them for better academic performance in the future.

I'll take that bargain.

If you are a parent it's pretty easy. My wife and I always talked to our daughters as if college were a foregone conclusion. We talked about college as if it was a given. School doesn't end at high school, it ends when you graduate college. It was always assumed in any school conversation. The idea that college was an optional thing never even came up.

Worked too, both have graduated from college (one with a masters degree). Start now, you can't do it too early.

As a side note, make sure your kids are aware there are other routes as well, and that there is nothing wrong with them if that is what they want to pursue. I've meet too many people who think going to a technical college or getting a trade skill is the 'loser' route for people that can't go to a 4 year college, when contractors, plumbers, and electricians are just as important jobs.

Minorities have the greatest access to education here than any other country, including Canada. While college education is much cheaper elsewhere, the poor minorities in US still can get free education, they simply do not pursue it. It has to be socialized to them and they don't take advantage of it.

It's not a poverty or racism issue when many states are giving free local college education and student loan makes college education quite affordable for the poor.

Middle class is different story, families that make a certain amount can't get tuition assistance and have to pay for their education which minorities get free tuition aren't taking advantage of it.

I worked and my parents also contributed to my college education while I see minorities in college dropping out because they lack motivation.

I don't know where you live, but your feelings don't jive with my experience (living as a new immigrant in minority-heavy school districts and less diverse, wealthier districts).

For the most part, minority-heavy schools tend to be underfunded and under-resourced. The teacher to student ratios are high (compared to wealthier districts). Teachers, especially young teachers, experience high attrition and burn-out rates. The ones that don't burn out sometimes go elsewhere to wealthier districts.

Poorer, minority-heavy students don't get the kind of individualize attention or self-affirmation. And just having funding for cheap college (it's not that cheap, even with government help, I want to warn you) isn't enough, because the damage to learning habits have already occurred by the time a student is going to college. A young lifetime in an under-funded and under-resourced school district is probably also going to leave the young student unable to be accepted to many colleges, or not be competitive enough once they get in.

So wait, if you apply yourself and work hard and set expectations for yourself you'll go far in life? WHO KNEW???

No. People who are self-affirmed apply themselves better and work harder. Not all kids get that, growing up, especially not minority kids (often new immigrants or first generation) or low-income kids. They don't get the kind of affirmation they need to succeed later on.

If you live in a culture or a family where you are told repeatedly that only the kids with certain financial or social advantages will succeed and all others will fail, you tend to follow that path. It's hard to break the limits you put on yourself. This appears to be one method to at least put a crack in those self imposed limits.

Minorities have the greatest access to education here than any other country, including Canada. While college education is much cheaper elsewhere, the poor minorities in US still can get free education, they simply do not pursue it. It has to be socialized to them and they don't take advantage of it.

It's not a poverty or racism issue when many states are giving free local college education and student loan makes college education quite affordable for the poor.

Middle class is different story, families that make a certain amount can't get tuition assistance and have to pay for their education which minorities get free tuition aren't taking advantage of it.

I worked and my parents also contributed to my college education while I see minorities in college dropping out because they lack motivation.

Citation please. Public schools in many areas in the US are quite bad and school segregation is quite high, especially in places that people might not expect like New York.

So wait, if you apply yourself and work hard and set expectations for yourself you'll go far in life? WHO KNEW???

No. People who are self-affirmed apply themselves better and work harder. Not all kids get that, growing up, especially not minority kids (often new immigrants or first generation) or low-income kids. They don't get the kind of affirmation they need to succeed later on.

If you live in a culture or a family where you are told repeatedly that only the kids with certain financial or social advantages will succeed and all others will fail, you tend to follow that path. It's hard to break the limits you put on yourself. This appears to be one method to at least put a crack in those self imposed limits.

For the most part, in my experience, it's not the culture or the family that's telling the kids that, it's society at large.

I'm definitely going to have to read the actual study, because this sounds like a great exercise to apply to your own kids.

At worst, it doesn't do anything and just takes maybe an hour or so a week from your kid's time (while at the same time helping them work on their writing skills). At best, it can motivate them for better academic performance in the future.

I'll take that bargain.

If you are a parent it's pretty easy. My wife and I always talked to our daughters as if college were a foregone conclusion. We talked about college as if it was a given. School doesn't end at high school, it ends when you graduate college. It was always assumed in any school conversation. The idea that college was an optional thing never even came up.

Worked too, both have graduated from college (one with a masters degree). Start now, you can't do it too early.

So wait, if you apply yourself and work hard and set expectations for yourself you'll go far in life? WHO KNEW???

Yeah, this idea is much easier said from a high-horse than done with people who come from generational poverty. When you grow up impoverished, and your family has always been impoverished, and your entire neighborhood is impoverished, and media reaffirms your poverty, worthlessness, and otherness, it becomes a part of your identity.

But you're right, who knew not being poor was as easy as just not being poor!

I really recommend this podcast in particular (hopefully it's the right one that I'm thinking of)

Minorities have the greatest access to education here than any other country, including Canada. While college education is much cheaper elsewhere, the poor minorities in US still can get free education, they simply do not pursue it. It has to be socialized to them and they don't take advantage of it.

It's not a poverty or racism issue when many states are giving free local college education and student loan makes college education quite affordable for the poor.

Middle class is different story, families that make a certain amount can't get tuition assistance and have to pay for their education which minorities get free tuition aren't taking advantage of it.

I worked and my parents also contributed to my college education while I see minorities in college dropping out because they lack motivation.

I don't know where you live, but your feelings don't jive with my experience (living as a new immigrant in minority-heavy school districts and less diverse, wealthier districts).

For the most part, minority-heavy schools tend to be underfunded and under-resourced. The teacher to student ratios are high (compared to wealthier districts). Teachers, especially young teachers, experience high attrition and burn-out rates. The ones that don't burn out sometimes go elsewhere to wealthier districts.

Poorer, minority-heavy students don't get the kind of individualize attention or self-affirmation. And just having funding for cheap college (it's not that cheap, even with government help, I want to warn you) isn't enough, because the damage to learning habits have already occurred by the time a student is going to college. A young lifetime in an under-funded and under-resourced school district is probably also going to leave the young student unable to be accepted to many colleges, or not be competitive enough once they get in.

Education does not begin and end with college.

The ways schools are funded is the opposite of what it should be. Schools in poor or troubled areas need more funding not less. As you mention opportunities to attend college don't mean much if you don't have a good educational foundation that starts at a much younger age. Schools should probably also draw their funding much a larger population, e.g. from the state level rather then the local level.

I'm definitely going to have to read the actual study, because this sounds like a great exercise to apply to your own kids.

At worst, it doesn't do anything and just takes maybe an hour or so a week from your kid's time (while at the same time helping them work on their writing skills). At best, it can motivate them for better academic performance in the future.

I'll take that bargain.

If you are a parent it's pretty easy. My wife and I always talked to our daughters as if college were a foregone conclusion. We talked about college as if it was a given. School doesn't end at high school, it ends when you graduate college. It was always assumed in any school conversation. The idea that college was an optional thing never even came up.

Worked too, both have graduated from college (one with a masters degree). Start now, you can't do it too early.

Other way 'round: If you're a kid with two parents, middle-class, at least one white one, it's easy.

I find this result fascinating. It's especially fascinating because of what it says about life circumstances relative to going to college.

I'm not saying there aren't all kinds of prejudices and handicaps that minority students have to overcome. There absolutely are. But it seems like this study hints that the underlying problem is the mentality induced by the circumstances, not the circumstances themselves.

Which fits well with all the anecdotes of people managing to elevate themselves above poor starting circumstances (their mentality for whatever reason was not fully defined by their circumstances) and ALSO with the clear data showing that poor economic and social circumstances hamper achievement.

I find this result fascinating. It's especially fascinating because of what it says about life circumstances relative to going to college.

I'm not saying there aren't all kinds of prejudices and handicaps that minority students have to overcome. There absolutely are. But it seems like this study hints that the underlying problem is the mentality induced by the circumstances, not the circumstances themselves.

Which fits well with all the anecdotes of people managing to elevate themselves above poor starting circumstances (their mentality for whatever reason was not fully defined by their circumstances) and ALSO with the clear data showing that poor economic and social circumstances hamper achievement.

Obviously this is anecdata, but often with those stories, you hear that there was one person (parent, grandparent, teacher, coach, etc) who "believed in me" or "had high expectations and I didn't want to let them down". Basically someone doing this affirming for them.

Minorities have the greatest access to education here than any other country, including Canada. While college education is much cheaper elsewhere, the poor minorities in US still can get free education, they simply do not pursue it. It has to be socialized to them and they don't take advantage of it.

It's not a poverty or racism issue when many states are giving free local college education and student loan makes college education quite affordable for the poor.

Middle class is different story, families that make a certain amount can't get tuition assistance and have to pay for their education which minorities get free tuition aren't taking advantage of it.

I worked and my parents also contributed to my college education while I see minorities in college dropping out because they lack motivation.

I don't know where you live, but your feelings don't jive with my experience (living as a new immigrant in minority-heavy school districts and less diverse, wealthier districts).

For the most part, minority-heavy schools tend to be underfunded and under-resourced. The teacher to student ratios are high (compared to wealthier districts). Teachers, especially young teachers, experience high attrition and burn-out rates. The ones that don't burn out sometimes go elsewhere to wealthier districts.

Poorer, minority-heavy students don't get the kind of individualize attention or self-affirmation. And just having funding for cheap college (it's not that cheap, even with government help, I want to warn you) isn't enough, because the damage to learning habits have already occurred by the time a student is going to college. A young lifetime in an under-funded and under-resourced school district is probably also going to leave the young student unable to be accepted to many colleges, or not be competitive enough once they get in.

Education does not begin and end with college.

The ways schools are funded is the opposite of what it should be. Schools in poor or troubled areas need more funding not less. As you mention opportunities to attend college don't mean much if you don't have a good educational foundation that starts at a much younger age. Schools should probably also draw their funding much a larger population, e.g. from the state level rather then the local level.

It's not as simple as more funding. Throwing money at this will not necessarily resolve the problem. There are many failing schools that receive more dollars per student than successful schools. But with more money being redirected to repairs, extra security, extra social programs and the like, less gets spent on education. In addition, the PTA/PTO groups tend to be more active in the better schools.

And, for more than 90 percent of them who received the self-affirmation assignments, this meant college. That's higher than the rate seen in their white peers (though the difference wasn't statistically significant)

Quote:

There are a lot of systemic reasons for this gap—persistent poverty, poor access to good preparatory schools, discrimination, and more.

And, for more than 90 percent of them who received the self-affirmation assignments, this meant college. That's higher than the rate seen in their white peers (though the difference wasn't statistically significant)

Quote:

There are a lot of systemic reasons for this gap—persistent poverty, poor access to good preparatory schools, discrimination, and more.

Minorities have the greatest access to education here than any other country, including Canada. While college education is much cheaper elsewhere, the poor minorities in US still can get free education, they simply do not pursue it. It has to be socialized to them and they don't take advantage of it.

It's not a poverty or racism issue when many states are giving free local college education and student loan makes college education quite affordable for the poor.

Middle class is different story, families that make a certain amount can't get tuition assistance and have to pay for their education which minorities get free tuition aren't taking advantage of it.

I worked and my parents also contributed to my college education while I see minorities in college dropping out because they lack motivation.

I don't know where you live, but your feelings don't jive with my experience (living as a new immigrant in minority-heavy school districts and less diverse, wealthier districts).

For the most part, minority-heavy schools tend to be underfunded and under-resourced. The teacher to student ratios are high (compared to wealthier districts). Teachers, especially young teachers, experience high attrition and burn-out rates. The ones that don't burn out sometimes go elsewhere to wealthier districts.

Poorer, minority-heavy students don't get the kind of individualize attention or self-affirmation. And just having funding for cheap college (it's not that cheap, even with government help, I want to warn you) isn't enough, because the damage to learning habits have already occurred by the time a student is going to college. A young lifetime in an under-funded and under-resourced school district is probably also going to leave the young student unable to be accepted to many colleges, or not be competitive enough once they get in.

Education does not begin and end with college.

The ways schools are funded is the opposite of what it should be. Schools in poor or troubled areas need more funding not less. As you mention opportunities to attend college don't mean much if you don't have a good educational foundation that starts at a much younger age. Schools should probably also draw their funding much a larger population, e.g. from the state level rather then the local level.

It's not as simple as more funding. Throwing money at this will not necessarily resolve the problem. There are many failing schools that receive more dollars per student than successful schools. But with more money being redirected to repairs, extra security, extra social programs and the like, less gets spent on education. In addition, the PTA/PTO groups tend to be more active in the better schools.

Obviously it's not the only necessary change but part of what I mean when I said they need more funding is specifically to spend on education. If extra money needs to be spent on repairs/security then that's even more funding that's required. The goal should be that all Public schools across the state provide similar qualities of education.

Minorities have the greatest access to education here than any other country, including Canada. While college education is much cheaper elsewhere, the poor minorities in US still can get free education, they simply do not pursue it. It has to be socialized to them and they don't take advantage of it.

It's not a poverty or racism issue when many states are giving free local college education and student loan makes college education quite affordable for the poor.

Middle class is different story, families that make a certain amount can't get tuition assistance and have to pay for their education which minorities get free tuition aren't taking advantage of it.

I worked and my parents also contributed to my college education while I see minorities in college dropping out because they lack motivation.

It's cool when you base your entire posts on objectively false statements, because it makes things a lot easier for me.

Education equity within OECD countries has been studied pretty extensively, and they release the results in their annual PISA reports. Canada outdoes the US both in terms of overall performance and in terms of educational equity, as do a pretty broad number of other OECD countries. It's not even hard to find that information - if the OECD's reports are too long for you then you could just look up the topic on Wikipedia, scroll down to their pretty map, and have a clear visual indication of just how poorly the US does here.

I mean... did you even consider looking for actual statistics before pulling stuff out of your ass?

Minorities have the greatest access to education here than any other country, including Canada. While college education is much cheaper elsewhere, the poor minorities in US still can get free education, they simply do not pursue it. It has to be socialized to them and they don't take advantage of it.

It's not a poverty or racism issue when many states are giving free local college education and student loan makes college education quite affordable for the poor.

Middle class is different story, families that make a certain amount can't get tuition assistance and have to pay for their education which minorities get free tuition aren't taking advantage of it.

I worked and my parents also contributed to my college education while I see minorities in college dropping out because they lack motivation.

It's cool when you base your entire posts on objectively false statements, because it makes things a lot easier for me.

Education equity within OECD countries has been studied pretty extensively, and they release the results in their annual PISA reports. Canada outdoes the US both in terms of overall performance and in terms of educational equity, as do a pretty broad number of other OECD countries. It's not even hard to find that information - if the OECD's reports are too long for you then you could just look up the topic on Wikipedia, scroll down to their pretty map, and have a clear visual indication of just how poorly the US does here.

I mean... did you even consider looking for actual statistics before pulling stuff out of your ass?

Minorities have the greatest access to education here than any other country, including Canada. While college education is much cheaper elsewhere, the poor minorities in US still can get free education, they simply do not pursue it. It has to be socialized to them and they don't take advantage of it.

It's not a poverty or racism issue when many states are giving free local college education and student loan makes college education quite affordable for the poor.

Middle class is different story, families that make a certain amount can't get tuition assistance and have to pay for their education which minorities get free tuition aren't taking advantage of it.

I worked and my parents also contributed to my college education while I see minorities in college dropping out because they lack motivation.

I don't know where you live, but your feelings don't jive with my experience (living as a new immigrant in minority-heavy school districts and less diverse, wealthier districts).

For the most part, minority-heavy schools tend to be underfunded and under-resourced. The teacher to student ratios are high (compared to wealthier districts). Teachers, especially young teachers, experience high attrition and burn-out rates. The ones that don't burn out sometimes go elsewhere to wealthier districts.

Poorer, minority-heavy students don't get the kind of individualize attention or self-affirmation. And just having funding for cheap college (it's not that cheap, even with government help, I want to warn you) isn't enough, because the damage to learning habits have already occurred by the time a student is going to college. A young lifetime in an under-funded and under-resourced school district is probably also going to leave the young student unable to be accepted to many colleges, or not be competitive enough once they get in.

Education does not begin and end with college.

The ways schools are funded is the opposite of what it should be. Schools in poor or troubled areas need more funding not less. As you mention opportunities to attend college don't mean much if you don't have a good educational foundation that starts at a much younger age. Schools should probably also draw their funding much a larger population, e.g. from the state level rather then the local level.

It's not as simple as more funding. Throwing money at this will not necessarily resolve the problem. There are many failing schools that receive more dollars per student than successful schools. But with more money being redirected to repairs, extra security, extra social programs and the like, less gets spent on education. In addition, the PTA/PTO groups tend to be more active in the better schools.

The problem also gets exacerbated by the unwillingness of parents to shortchange their own children to help someone else's. I, myself, am totally unwilling to send the money I am paying into my local school system into an inner-city school so some kid I'll never see has a marginally better chance of not ending up poor in 30 years. I'd much rather that money went to *my* kid's school where I can watch it enrich my own child's education immediately.

Tribalism writ small. There is no world in which a person's own children are less important than the undefined "other." Nor should they be.

Minorities have the greatest access to education here than any other country, including Canada. While college education is much cheaper elsewhere, the poor minorities in US still can get free education, they simply do not pursue it. It has to be socialized to them and they don't take advantage of it.

It's not a poverty or racism issue when many states are giving free local college education and student loan makes college education quite affordable for the poor.

Middle class is different story, families that make a certain amount can't get tuition assistance and have to pay for their education which minorities get free tuition aren't taking advantage of it.

I worked and my parents also contributed to my college education while I see minorities in college dropping out because they lack motivation.

I don't know where you live, but your feelings don't jive with my experience (living as a new immigrant in minority-heavy school districts and less diverse, wealthier districts).

For the most part, minority-heavy schools tend to be underfunded and under-resourced. The teacher to student ratios are high (compared to wealthier districts). Teachers, especially young teachers, experience high attrition and burn-out rates. The ones that don't burn out sometimes go elsewhere to wealthier districts.

Poorer, minority-heavy students don't get the kind of individualize attention or self-affirmation. And just having funding for cheap college (it's not that cheap, even with government help, I want to warn you) isn't enough, because the damage to learning habits have already occurred by the time a student is going to college. A young lifetime in an under-funded and under-resourced school district is probably also going to leave the young student unable to be accepted to many colleges, or not be competitive enough once they get in.

Education does not begin and end with college.

The ways schools are funded is the opposite of what it should be. Schools in poor or troubled areas need more funding not less. As you mention opportunities to attend college don't mean much if you don't have a good educational foundation that starts at a much younger age. Schools should probably also draw their funding much a larger population, e.g. from the state level rather then the local level.

It's not as simple as more funding. Throwing money at this will not necessarily resolve the problem. There are many failing schools that receive more dollars per student than successful schools. But with more money being redirected to repairs, extra security, extra social programs and the like, less gets spent on education. In addition, the PTA/PTO groups tend to be more active in the better schools.

The problem also gets exacerbated by the unwillingness of parents to shortchange their own children to help someone else's. I, myself, am totally unwilling to send the money I am paying into my local school system into an inner-city school so some kid I'll never see has a marginally better chance of not ending up poor in 30 years. I'd much rather that money went to *my* kid's school where I can watch it enrich my own child's education immediately.

Tribalism writ small. There is no world in which a person's own children are less important than the undefined "other." Nor should they be.

This is why the situation is unlikely to change in the US, however, it works in a number of other countries like Canada. The problem with this viewpoint is that you assume helping the 'other' child does nothing for your own family and that's where you're wrong. Providing solid social services; Education, Health Care, etc for everyone will help the economy in general and that's where you and your children will see a benefit. The other point to make is that often the immediate negative to your child will be much smaller than the positive to the 'other' child and can be made up with things like fund raising (which schools in wealthy areas do anyway).